Melter

Bruno Horgan was a corrupt industrialist who lost his defense contracts to Stark Industries after his equipment was found defective. Driven by resentment, he discovered his faulty machinery emitted a beam capable of dissolving metal, and he weaponized it to become the Melter.

Few villains carry the Silver Age pedigree of Melter, who burst onto the scene in The Avengers #6 in 1964, conjured by the legendary duo of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby at the height of Marvel's creative explosion. With team affiliations spanning both the Avengers and the notorious Masters of Evil, this character occupies a genuinely fascinating dual space in Marvel's mythology — and has kept remarkable company over the decades, sharing pages with icons like Iron Man, Captain America, Tony Stark, and Steve Rogers. Sixty years of appearances across The Avengers, Avengers, and Iron Man titles — plus ten collector-recognized key issues — speak to a staying power that goes well beyond a one-note antagonist. For fans who love tracing the deep roots of Marvel's Silver Age tapestry, Melter is exactly the kind of character worth hunting down.